Why Static Stretching is Dangerous Before Your Runs

Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN
myTreadmillTrainer.com

I've written several articles on why statci stretching before your runs is dangerous. And I'm not the only one who has done so. But for some reason, coaches, runners, and exercisers seem to somehow still believe that holding a stretch for 30 seconds or so is necessary before running or working out.

But where did the nonsensical belief come from? Well according to a former professor of mine, Dr. Doug Richards at the University of Toronto, this "oral folklore" comes about because of coaches and athletes who pass on misinformation overtime.

For instance, did you ever play on a team and had a coach who would say that stretching needs to be done before your game in order to prevent an injury? I know I did.

Dr. Richards is one of the leading sport medicine doctors in Canada (and beyond in my opinion) and I was fortunate to talk with him in person last week (after several of having graduated). During our talk, I asked him what the latest research was showing in relation to stretching.

His response was that several studies have shown that static stretching before activity is dangerous! Note that he didn't say "not effective" but "dangerous".

In a previous article on dynamic stretching I highlight several of these studies and I urge you to read it if you want to discover these studies.

But it was fascinating how Dr. Richards shot down the use of static stretching before any form of physical activity. What you need to doing instead is using dynamic stretching before your runs and save the static stretching for afterwards.

Recently, Dr. Richards was nominated for Best Lecturer by TVO Ontario. And the lecture that was submitted was a great talk on stretching.

You can watch his stretching lecture by clicking here.

Once you're ready to learn how to warm-up properly before your runs then I recommend checking out the Stretching for Runners program.

=> CLICK HERE to get started with the Stretching for Runners program!